Building Collapses

A 12-story building collapsed in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least three people, according to rescuers and the state-run Middle East News Agency. Two women were pulled from the debris with minor injuries, a rescue worker said. Civil defense workers had pulled three corpses from the rubble by nightfall, the news agency said, quoting Brig. Gen. Nabil Zeni, head of Alexandria's fire department.

Twenty people were killed and many were trapped when a four-story building collapsed in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, the International Committee of the Red Cross and residents said. "So far 50 people have been rescued alive and 20 confirmed dead," Red Cross officer Umar Mairiga said. The number of people trapped under the rubble was unclear because a restaurant, a bar and shops on the ground floor had customers when the building caved in, neighbors and the Red Cross said.

Part of a building under construction on the University of Wisconsin campus collapsed Wednesday and injured seven workers, including one who was trapped in the rubble for more than three hours. The cause was not immediately known. The fourth floor, the highest assembled so far for what eventually will be an eight-story pharmacy academic building, gave way, a university spokeswoman said. The injured were found on the third floor.

A teenage boy buried in a collapsed apartment building in Turkey was pulled alive from the rubble Sunday, six days after the disaster. A 23-year-old woman was found alive today, and rescuers were working to free her. Muhammet Kalem, 16, survived because he was trapped in a pocket formed by pulverized concrete. His father, Ahmet, had so little hope of seeing his son again that he had dug his grave. Rescuers found five more bodies in the ruins Sunday as the death toll rose to 71.

One worker was killed and two were injured when a building collapsed in Upper Manhattan. The three men were renovating the five-story building on West 113th Street when the top three floors collapsed. Of the two injured workers, one managed to free himself from the rubble; the other was rescued from the debris by firefighters. Both were in stable condition at a hospital.

Rescue workers recovered a 15th body Saturday from beneath the rubble of a 13-story apartment building that collapsed in the northern Brazilian city of Belem and said little hope remains of finding survivors. Fire officials said rescuers expected to find more bodies. About 40 construction workers were working on the building when it collapsed Thursday, and 20 survivors were pulled from the rubble. Half of those survivors remain hospitalized in serious condition.

Soldiers were called out Friday to help dig for people missing in the rubble of a building collapse that killed at least 13 people the day before. Red Cross and state government officials confirmed the number of known dead and said that 53 people were injured. Police spokesman Gilberto Sanchez said that about 60 soldiers from the army garrison here joined firefighters, police and volunteers in the rescue effort.

The U.S. Labor Department, citing "sloppy construction practices" and "obvious design deficiencies," imposed a record $5 million in fines Thursday against the contractors of a Connecticut apartment complex that collapsed earlier this year, killing 28 construction workers. The fines, which can be appealed, are the largest penalty ever imposed in the 16-year history of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Russian rescue workers searching for people trapped in the ruins of a collapsed indoor water park called off their efforts as officials announced the death toll had risen to 25. As many as 17 people remain missing, presumably buried under debris of Transvaal Park in Moscow, officials said. Rescuers shoveled snow from the tangled mass of steel and concrete. Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said faulty construction or maintenance probably was to blame.